Mouse's Long and Sad Tale

[starrynight06]

Vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood.

I absolutely love this scent! This is lovely with a childlike quality. I get a strong scent of vanilla and I smell the, whats that again, sweet pea? The amber is there as well, although not as prominent. Very delicate, light and sweet. I like it!

[Victory]

Vanilla? Sweet pea? Amber? SIGN ME UP! .... Or maybe not. This is a delicate, childlike, sweet scent that's very pretty, but I feel like I should be wearing a foofy pink dress and playing with a tea set. Sometimes I get that feeling when I wear Alice- like I'm too old to wear the oil- I'm not sure why. I think this would be a nice scent to wear when you feel like you're going to cry because it is so sweet and cuddly. As it dries down, the sweet pea tames itself and the vanilla perks up, which for me is a godsend because although I love sweet pea in other blends, it's too much here, and because the Lab's vanilla never shows up on my skin. I'm going back and forth on whether or not I like it. More than I thought I would when I first applied the oil, but not enough. I'm not sure this is an oil I'd wear very often.

[SeaLady]

This is...puzzling, in a good way.

 

In the imp: Baffling. Sweet, nostalgic, sort of floral?

 

On, wet: Still puzzling - very sweet, but not cloying, delicate but not faint in the least, sandalwood spicy.

 

On, dry: Migrated throughout the day. Floral and sweet, to spicy, to amber and sweet pea. I just reapplied it, because it had gotten faint since 10 this morning (it's 7:20 now)

 

Overall: This is thoroughly baffling, and absolutely exquisite. It's art. I love it, confusedly. Someday, a bottle. Someday very soon, depending on the state of my self control ^^

[grrrlennyl]

at first: sweet.

on: warm and sweet, with a bit of brightness from the sweet pea. very nice.

half an hour later: beautiful. absolutely beautiful. the notes are blending together perfectly and the sandalwood is hovering over everything.

2 hours later: this smells like powdery wood on me now. boo.

5.5 hours later: mostly woodsy and powdery, with a tiny hint of sweetness.

overall: unfortunately, this just didn't develop nicely on me.

[Loligo]

Bleargh. The powdery amber and the sweet pea combine to make this blend smell like baby care products, and not in a good way -- there's a slight plasticky note to it, reminiscent of disposable diapers. (Unused diapers, but still.) I get very little vanilla until later in drydown, and no sandalwood at all.

[Dinerdulcinea]

imp: hmmmm...beguiling! Light and slightly sweet, but mysterious too.

 

wet: it's very soft and not unpleasant...but I don't think I'd go out of my way for it.

 

dry: gets a little faint. Again, I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

[supremegoddessofall]

Soft and pretty! I predominantly get the vanilla and the amber, but there is a touch of floral from the sweet pea. The sandalwood is subtle, but is providing a unifying base.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Oh, damn and blast. This sounded so very exquisite, absolute perfection unless the sweetpea ruined it… and in the vial it’s all soap. *grrr*

 

Wearing: On me it’s a bit more vanilla than soap, but it’s still quite soapy. Curse you, sweetpea!

[dorothy humbird]

I'm starting to suspect that my skin and/or my nose really hate amber.

 

This blend smells delicious in the vial... light and sweet, slightly floral and what I suspect is the amber.

 

When I put it on, the sweetness seems to intensify and I'm in a cloud of vanilla-amber-sweetpea that I think is only slightly tempered by the sandalwood. For me, this is actually too sweet. I never expected I would be a person to find things too sweet... but there you have it.

 

It's actually quite a pretty scent, but not something I want to be smelling on myself all day. I guess I'll have to make sure I take my amber well-disguised by other scents in the future.

[girl_android]

I've had this in my upcoming to be tested pile of imps (split out from the larger pile of imps just received that I've either made a decision on whether they're up next ... I organise them alphabetically, but I'm not testing them alphabetically!), for a little while... other things (like dorian! *swoon!*, and white rabbit! and sudha segara!) have decided they wanted wearing more often instead.

 

In the imp, I remember this morning it was all sweet pea with a touch of vanilla. I was worried that it was too sweet and floral-heady for me!

 

Wet on skin, the eeep! part of the sweet pea settles down a bit, it's a little bit 'skipping in the colourful fields of flowers' kind of spring picture to me, but I'll deal. It definitely makes me think I shouldn't be flopping about at home in jeans, a red t-shirt and a black jumper, but instead should be wearing a fluffy pink (! eeeep! run away!) dress, a headband (... an alice band? keeping with the theme?), white patent leather flat mary janes with frilly lace socks, carrying a basket of freshly picked flowers.

 

Once it's dry, the amber comes out to play. I get a vanilla-y amber scent, with just a little bit of the sweet pea hanging around. Seeing as the sweet pea has died down a bit, it's got a less pink fluffy dress kind of feel. Still a little girly for my tastes though ... undecided for the moment - maybe today's not a particularly girly day for me? (:

[maribouquet]

imp: vanilla bathroom cleanser

wet: sweet pea? I think that what may be translating as "toilette" to my nose

dry: uh oh, the vanilla's going plastic

 

Oh mouse, you are so sweet and soft, but on me you smell like a recently sanitized cage. I am very sad.

[tempestteapot]

Very soft scent. Almost no throw at all. I can always tell when I get one that does...my officemates revolt.

 

But this one is very light vanilla. It also flees as quickly as its namesake.

[cinderfallen]

This is exactly like Dorian! That slightly powdery vanilla sugared tea....unmistakable. It goes a little plastic on me, though, so I'll stick with the former.

[smallvoice]

Chemistry is so freaky! I would not have thought of Dorian as a comparison to MLST in a million years. This doesn't smell like Dorian on me at all, obviously. Then again, I don't think I would have made a connection to baby products, but it does remind me of them on my skin. Oddly, in a very comforting way. I've gotten ahead of myself, though.

 

I didn't want to try this one because sandalwood is a Very Bad Note for me, but I've heard so much good that I recently swapped for it... and promptly put it in my imp box.

 

Today it came out- and such a surprise! I can actually smell the sandalwood and it's not bad. It has that creamy goodness- I think it's taking it from the vanilla. I do love amber, and sweet pea is so delicate... it's a very girly, delicate scent. It is like summer and dresses and giggling. I don't think I compare scents to colours the same way other people do, so don't get freaked out over this if you're not a "white scent" sort of person usually. It's not striking me as a pink scent, though- more like a white lacy scent.

 

I really like this. I think I'd like to have a bottle someday.

 

EDIT: January, 2008: I do have a bottle, and it's six months old, and let me tell you- aging is a wonderful thing. It turns into this incredibly sweet incense-y smell that I adore. Fantastic! Someone recently compared it to Death Cap (Christine Daae, I think?) and I was thinking that earlier today when I pulled my bottle out. Lovely!

Edited January 17, 2008 by cordia

[ktesedale]

In the vial, this is a delicious sweet vanilla/amber. I can just barely smell the sweet pea, but I think it adds to the overall sweetness.

 

Wet, this is waaaay too sweet. It's almost sickening. This only lasts about five minutes.

 

Dry, I very briefly get a lovely mix of amber, vanilla, and faint floral, before it turns into a sweet baby powder. *sigh* I was hoping this amber wouldn't do that, since it smells so good in the vial! Not a huge surprise, but not what I was hoping, either. People who can wear amber might still love this, though!

[PirateMaggie]

I really didn't expect to like this as much as I did. I adore BPAL vanilla blends, but amber is very hit or miss with me: it's either glowingly sweet or sickly baby-powder. Happily, in Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, it's the former.

 

Wet, it's mostly lightly floral vanilla--very much like Regan but with sweet pea instead of stephanotis. Very nice (but as Regan is one of my default every day scents, I would say that.)

 

As it dries, it gets even better. The amber comes out, making this a wonderful warm second-skin scent. Then the sandalwood comes out to play, for a slightly smoky undertone which keeps the other ingredients from becoming sticky or cloying. Resins and woods can overpower lighter notes, but not so here. Instead, they work to make an otherwise bright-white light floral vanilla more interesting. I want to wear layers of gauzy tea-dyed white dresses and eat small dainty cakes in a garden when I wear this scent. (Instead, I went to a motorcycle show in stompy boots, but I rather liked that juxtaposition as well: tough leather-clad biker chick in a delicate, pretty, girly perfume.)

 

Throw is rather light, but the amber and sandalwood help it last. Because of the complexity of this blend, I think I actually like it better than Regan and may require a bottle soon.

[alliekat13]

In the bottle: a sweet, candylike scent, mainly sweet pea and vanilla. This is a different sweet pea than Juliet or Aeval though. On skin: strong sweet pea, super strong amber. The amber and sweet pea take over the scent and I can't smell my beloved vanilla anymore. After a while the sweet pea fades into the background, mixing with everything, the vanilla comes out more and entwines itself with the amber. Later on the sandalwood comes out and adds an interesting woody twist to this girly, pretty scent. I like it a lot, but I was hoping to get more vanilla out of this.

[Maia]

My first review!

 

Dry on my skin I smell flowers and vanilla. After a while the vanilla mellows down, and the Mouse's Long and Sad Tale turns in to a light, milky floral which actually reminds me a lot of Morocco, which on me is a creamy, powdery, light floral (I don’t really get along with floral scents that well, and this is bordering on being too floral for me). A little later on the vanilla amps up again and the sweet pea slips into the background.

 

It settles into a faint vanilla with a powdery, close to skin quality, which I assume is thanks to the amber. The sweet pea can perhaps be detected, but mostly because I know it’s there somewhere. It’s a pretty, innocent, “little girlish” scent – but I don’t think this is for me. I love vanilla and I love amber, but this scent is too “pale” for me.

Edited February 16, 2007 by Maia

[Luhtarian]

In the imp and when I put it on there is a strong smell of honeydew, or some other melon. It's yummy... but then the amber amps to pure baby powder and totally ruins it.

 

...I still have no idea where the honeydew smell is coming from.

[acaciasears]

This was one of the very first scents I tried, and I'm so sad to say it didn't work at all on me.

 

In Bottle: vaguely floral & powdery; sweet, but I'm not smelling much vanilla or amber, and can't pick out anything resembling sandalwood.

 

On Skin: After about 3 seconds, this turned to an exact reproduction of chewable Children's Tylonol tablets (grape flavor). I have no idea why, but it's a very recognizable scent, and because of the negative associations with it (IE - I only took it when I was very little and sick) I can't wear it. Love vanilla, love amber, love sandalwood. It just hated me. I gave it to a friend of mine, and it worked on her, so that made me happy!

 

(this was my first review!)

[ForeverLastcXs]

I love amber, sweet pea, and vanilla, so I absolutely adore this scent! The sweet pea is the prominent note with hints of vanilla and amber underneath, just the right combination to be sweet and creamy at the same time. It smells like a freshly-baked yellow cake with thick, whipped pink frosting on top, and it's making me want to gnaw on my wrist. Beautiful scent..I'll have to get some more of this!

[Doomramen]

I practically danced with glee when I sniffed this in the bottle. It smelled like happy pink candy fun.

On, it smelled slightly soapy, and slightly powdery. It wasn't bad, but it was more a baby scent than a little girl scent, and seemed to be how baby powder ought to smell.

Then evil mutant amber came and gobbled it up.

Oh, I hope I'm not double posting!

Edited February 14, 2007 by Doomramen

[presotm]

Very soft, delicate........smells 'pale' to me - a pale vanillary floral. I had to apply twice just to review it - my skin just eats this one up. As it dries, the amber turns the florals down and makes the scent powdery, but not in a sneeze-inducing way.

 

Verdict: not much point really! I can't get it to stay on my skin long enough to smell of anything much!

[SultryWolf]

In the bottle: Fruity sweet.

On: Soft, sweet and gentle; almost reminds be a bit of Annabel Lee, with vanilla. The amber comes out gently on drydown.

This one deserves its reputation as a favorite; sadly, throw and staying power are weak.

[wikkidraven]

when i first applied this, i was reminded of my beloved Lush snowcake. i don't know why, it just smelled incredibly almondy. then the sweet pea and amber chimed in, and i started getting that baby powder note that i'm so terrified of.

 

right now it's hovering between the two...this isn't quite what i expected. i'll probably give it another go and then swap it if the mouse doesn't behave.